The Stetson baseball team jumped out to an early lead on Delaware Saturday night at Melching Field and then hung on late to take a 5-2 victory over the Blue Hens, drawing even in the season-opening weekend series.

The Hatters will try to take the series on Sunday when the squads meet in the rubber game. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The Stetson offense, which managed just four hits in the opening game on Friday night, bounced back with 10 hits Saturday, producing a pair of runs in the first inning and two more in the third off Delaware's freshman starting pitcher Brandon Walter.

“We got some production at the top of the order, but we have to learn to keep building on it when we get a lead,” Hatters coach Pete Dunn said. “At the end, it got back to within one swing range. We had some opportunities, but we didn't come up with the big hit when we had runners on in the latter part of the game.”

The Hatters opened the game with four of the first five batters picking up hits to plate the first two runs. Freshman Jacob Koos and junior Vance Vizcaino both beat out infield hits before Cory Reid singled up the middle and John Fussell continued his hot start with a hit to left to plate the two runs.

The Blue Hens got one of those runs back in the second inning, the only frame in which they even threatened against Stetson starter Brooks Wilson (1-0). Brooks surrendered a leadoff walk in the frame to Diaz Nardo before consecutive singles from James Meeker and Doug Trimble loaded the bases.

After getting the first out of the frame on strikes, one of a career-high nine Ks in the game for Wilson, Delaware's Jeremy Ake delivered a sacrifice fly to put the Blue Hens on the board. Wilson responded by striking out Kyle Baker to end the inning without further damage.

Stetson scored two more runs in the third after Reid and Mackenzie opened the frame with consecutive doubles. Fussell followed with a single to move Mackenzie up, allowing him to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jack Machonis.

The Hatters chased Walter (0-1) in the sixth inning after Machonis drew a one-out walk, moved up on a wild pitch and a balk from reliever Kyle Hinton and then scored on a ground ball off the bat of Austin Hale.

Wilson allowed just three other base runners through his six innings of work for Stetson, permitting just the one run on three hits with three walks and the nine strikeouts. His previous high for strikeouts in a game was seven against Kennesaw State last April.

Brooks was followed on the mound by freshman Logan Gilbert, who was impressive in his debut outing, recording three strikeouts in 1.2 innings while hitting 95 miles per hour on the Melching Field radar gun.

“Brooksie threw really well, but when he got to 96 pitches we had to make the change,” Dunn said. “Gilbert came in after that and threw really well. He could have finished it up, but we wanted to get him out of there to have him ready for Sunday.”

The Hatters had to hold on to get the final four outs of the game after Gilbert was removed. Tyler Keller allowed a hit to the only batter he faced before closer Walker Sheller came into the game. The junior had been out of action after suffering a cut on the ring finger of his pitching hand in practice, and the rust showed.

“Sheller had to get out there,” Dunn said. “The thing is that when he cut his finger, he couldn't throw at all. He just hasn't thrown any for the last week to try to let that heal. We'll write this off because he was rusty from sitting out.”

Sheller allowed a pair of hits and three walks, while also picking up three strikeouts to get the final four outs of the game. His second walk came with the bases loaded, allowing Nick Tierno, who singled off Keller, to score. Tierno had two of the six hits in the game for the Blue Hens.

Overall, the four Stetson pitchers combined to strikeout 15 batters in the game, the most since a 17 strikeout performance against Central Michigan last February. The Hatters also got two hits each from Koos, Vizcaino, Reid and Fussell in the game. The Hatters also played errorless ball in the game, an improvement over the opening night performance.